Australia, being the driest continent of the world, explores unconventional waters such as seawater in coastal areas and brackish groundwater in inland areas as potential drinking water resources. While the current technologies such as reverse osmosis can make this hurdle into a reality by desalination process, these membrane processes suffer from fouling and scaling issues with consequent need for periodic replacement of these membranes. The problem is aggravated when inland brackish waters need to have higher recovery rate for reducing the quantity of concentrate to be eventually managed within inland areas. Therefore, in this project, alternative pre-treatment options are being investigated that can prolong the membrane’s lifetime.

Dr Vasanthadevi Aravinthan

• Dr Antoine Trzcinski

• School of Engineering and Built Environment

• Environmental Engineering
• Environmental Science and Management

• Doctor of Philosophy (DPHD)
• Master of Research (MRES)